Why Do the Best Bowlers Break Off Their Deliveries more than I do?

If you watch the world’s best lawn bowlers on Youtube it is not  unusual to see one of them break-off his delivery and then restart his entire delivery routine. Usually the commentator proposes that some movement either in the crowd or by a photographer has broken the bowler’s concentration. My question is this: Why don’t ordinary bowlers do this to the same extent?

 I think we ought to but we haven’t been taught to- and we haven’t practiced to do so. I am certainly very familiar with the experience of letting a bowl go and realizing immediately that I had lost my concentration part way into the swing. The problem is that I have not trained myself to break it off. I just continue an already doomed delivery hoping beyond hope that some bump in the green or unplanned wick will correct my wayward bowl. 

Jack Delivery at Lawn Bowls: What I think I see David Corkill Doing

David Corkill is the BBC lawn bowls commentator and a good player himself. On Youtube I was watching him  delivering the jack in the 2016 Scottish Championship and I think I detected something that can benefit ordinary bowlers particularly those who play on grass.

David seemed to be rolling the jack intentionally off the center line.  I believe this action was intentional because he was not having difficulty with line in his regular bowl deliveries. Why was he doing this? There are two possibilities I can think of. (Actually I had already thought of both of these but had never seen anyone else intentionally delivering the jack away from the center.) First, delivering the jack towards the junction of the boundary and the front ditch makes it less likely that you will accidentally ditch the jack, since the path from the center of the mat to the eventual stopping point of the jack will be slightly longer. (It passes across as well as down the rink.) Second, by carefully watching the path of the jack as it moves in this path you can get a better insight for whatever slight sloping may exist. Although this may be very little on the carpet, a player can expect to discover some more significant variations on a grass rink. This jack path would work better for this because delivering the jack off-center more closely approximates the actual curved path of a bowl.

To see the behavior of Corkill view the middle ends of the first set in the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gZQ6k4L9UU&t=5085s

If You Accept that Length is More Important than Line, You Should Take the Mat in the First End

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In the first end of most lawn bowling matches in Ontario, Canada, there there are no trial ends.  Everything about the rinkmay be unknown. as a consequence, your first bowl is  least likely to end up as a counter. Still, because many experts believe that length is 9 times more important than line, you should take the mat and bowl the jack because delivering the jack will give you an good idea of the best opening weight. A bowl rolled with the same velocity as and immediately following the jack almost certainly will end up behind the jack and even if you misjudge the line badly your bowl will be in place to catch a displaced jack. Moreover, because the proper line is not yet known by either side, narrow bowls are more likely in this opening end and it is narrow bowls that can knock the jack backwards.

Lawn Bowling Practice:Quantifying Progress

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It is important to measure how you are doing with your lawn bowls. There are a number of methods of quantifying your draw bowling skill. I use a method I have devised called measuring the 'median of medians'. The method is described:

http://greenbowler.blogspot.ca/2013/04/median-of-medians-as-measure-of.html

I bowl three bowls to a centered jack at random lengths and measure the second-best bowl's distance from the jack. This is repeated between 9 and 15 times. The median value of these recorded bowls is the 'median of medians'. I just finished a test on the James Gardens synthetic surface which is running about 15 seconds. My 'median of medians' value was 49 inches or just about 4 feet. This is the second-best I have ever recorded. My best bowl in each end was approximately twice as good, meaning that a bowl better than two feet from the jack would usually be needed for an opponent to score. 

Bowls Strategy and Tactics: Does Shot Selection Depend Upon Skill Level?

I watch Youtube lawn bowling videos trying to learn from the shot selections made by the best players. Whether this is useful however depends, I think, upon the answer to the question, “Is correct shot selection dependent upon skill level?” That is to say,“ If I can only draw within an average two feet of a target, should I try the same shot as say Paul Foster who can bowl on average within 3 inches?”

Tacticians who write books tell us that for each shot we contemplate we should consider the risk/reward ratio. If this is true and it does make sense. the answer hinges on the answer to a second question: “Are there bowls positions where the risk/reward ratio changes depending upon the skill level of the bowler?” This latter question is easier to answer. I can fabricate a simple  situation that will make this point clearly.

I have the last bowl. The jack is in the ditch. My opponent sits four. One counter is four feet from the ditch. Three more counting bowls are eight feet from the ditch. Because I could easily accidentally ditch my bowl and go down four if I try to get shot (since my average error is two feet), I should simply stay out of the ditch and make sure I have second so I will only go down one. A professional, who can bowl within inches of his target, can play to get shot without undue risk.  So yes- risk/reward ratios for each tactical situation depend upon the bowler’s precision.

Does this mean an average bowler can learn nothing from the tactical choices made by a champion? No. The factors that are to be considered are the same for both. The terms in the weighing equation are the same but the weight (the likelihood or importance) of each term is different depending upon skill level. We should be able to enumerate to ourselves the different considerations that the pros are thinking about. We should then have a good chance to understand their selection of shot so long as we understand their level of precision. We should also have a fair idea where the selection the champion chooses will differ from what we ought to try in the same situation.

The video commentator will often give the viewer a ‘heads up’ where the professional’s selection differs from what a player of lower class might choose. How often have I heard something like, “This is a situation where only Marshall would back himself to draw the shot.” In other words, if you are an ordinary mortal, don’t try this!

My Lawn Bowls Delivery After Five Years of Trials

Recently I bowled in a pair’s tournament against my wife.  Fortuitously, because she was ’leading’ and I was ‘skipping’, we were always at opposite ends of the rink. The evening following the match, my wife told me that the particular background for the rink we were playing on enabled her to clearly see small movements of my trunk and that about 40% of the time my body position while I was taking my line differed from its position during my actual delivery; furthermore, when it did not deviate, my shots were clearly more effective.

Following from this sharp observation I have simplified my delivery so as to eliminate this difference. Subsequently, in practices, when I worked at keeping line and length constant, my bowls ended much more closely grouped than ever before.

As I have said repeatedly, one should on balance resist changing one’s delivery because unlearning routine is difficult; however, the changes in this case did not add, but removed, elements of my delivery routine while notably improving the outcomes.

What is left:

1.     Standing behind the mat: I decide on the shot; grip the bowl appropriately https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dr5UQ6XeB0

I imagine the path of the bowl from mat to target.

2.     I step onto the mat and assume the Shooters’ Stance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b9cKvPeWj4&t=121s .

3.     I bend forward from the waist keeping both legs straight and steady my bowl with my free hand at knee height and just beside the knee of my forward foot.

4.     With my head over the aim line, I look along this imaginary line and select and hold a stare point about 5 meters in front of the mat.

5.     I cock my wrist. http://greenbowler.blogspot.ca/2015/11/using-cocked-wrist-in-lawn-bowl-delivery.html

6.     I move my non-bowling hand from supporting the bowl onto the knee of the leg that will be advancing.

7.    Without straightening up I slowly draw the bowl back along the aim line like an archer drawing a bow.

8.     Just before I begin the forward pendulum swing, as I am completing my backswing, I step forward and plant my advancing foot.

9.     With my wrist still cocked, I release the bowl at the bottom of the swing.

                    I follow through but do not add rotation to the bowl either with my wrist or fingers (my bowling arm should finish at an angle of about 45 degrees to the ground).

 AAs I swing, my body weight should move forward so that I tend to take a step off the front of the mat after the bowl is released.

Forget About Adding or Subtracting a Yard for Now

Fairly often I see lawn bowlers practicing adding or subtracting a yard to their deliveries on a rink with cut up yellow tennis balls marking the intervals.  I’ve done it myself. My judgment: it’s a waste of time until you can consistently deliver four bowls the same length (within a yard).  This was so obvious once I thought about it. Delivering with exactly the same weight can be expected to be much, much easier than adding or subtracting weight, but who can consistently do it?  Certainly not me- yet. 

The Shooter’s Stance in Bowls can End Crouching to get a Stare Point

In videos of the legendary David Bryant, we see him squatting on the mat, unlit pipe between his teeth, picking out his line.

I also had a tendency to bend over from the waist to bring my eyes closer to the ground when taking my line and stare point. Then I would stand up straight and begin my bowl delivery. After being defeated 24-3 in an open singles encounter at the Willowdale Lawn Bowling Club, my talented and experienced opponent volunteered (after I agreed that I wanted advice) that I should stop this wasteful and time-consuming practice. With a bit of experience, I was advised, just as good a stare point can be achieved from a fully erect posture.

This is not the first time, I have been thus advised. My Canadian coach has been after me about it and a helpful opposing skip at the Turramurra LBC also suggested that I bowl within seven seconds of taking my line, because he said that the longer one tries to hold a stare point the more it will be distorted.

My resistance to this advice came because I was convinced that at least I must focus on something that I can see very distinctly and so that object cannot be more than 5 meters in front of the mat. Following this, selecting that point and making sure it was on my aim line could not be an instantaneous reflex judgment.

Since adopting the shooters’ stance no special aids are needed to pick out the correct line because having your eye directly over the aim line makes it easier. This is just another benefit of the amazing shooters’ stance.